An Ordinary Drone
by Darkfyre1607
Summary: A changeling grub hatches with memories of another life. Now he must learn how to be a proper drone and serve his queen.
1. The Hatching

Throughout my first life, I never really thought about death. Not many people do, really; we all just assume that we'll live forever. But I had a greater reason not to be curious than most. When you're only just graduating from high school, why would you be? What happened the day after I graduated proved that my reasoning was flawed. I don't think I'll give the details; they aren't very interesting. The real important part starts with what happened after my corpse was stone cold.

When I first woke up, I thought that I was going to spend the rest of eternity floating in nothingness. I couldn't see, hear, or move, although I could feel some warm substance around me. Eventually, though, after some amount of time, I realized that I could move what seemed like a pair of arms, though I couldn't detect any legs. After that realization, I began to feel bored. I started to squirm around, and suddenly, my head popped out of the warm slime around me, allowing me to open my eyes and see where I was.

I was in a grayish-blue cavern filled with holes and twisted rock formations. Once I took in my surroundings and realized that, through some turn of events, I had stopped being dead, I tried to stand up, only to find that I was trapped in a lime green egg. As panic set in, I also saw that my arms were now handless and charcoal-black and that I had a short muzzle in front of my field of vision. I attempted to scream, only to let out a reptilian hiss complete with a long, forked tongue and what felt like fangs sticking out of my mouth to compliment it. At the sound of my raspy voice, several other black, snouted, horned, fanged creatures with torn, swiveling ears turned and exchanged hisses of their own.

The other creatures and I sent hisses back and forth for what must have been hours before a much larger example of our species appeared. She was huge, with long, spindly, hole-filled legs, a shell around her torso, a long neck, slitted eyes, fangs, a twisted horn, insect wings, and a ragged, blue mane and tail. Objectively, I knew that she should have been considered horrifying, but when I looked at her with my new, blue-tinged eyes, I could only see her as absolutely beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that I overcame my unfamiliarity with my new body to drag my white and black, legless, grub-like form over to her. She gazed down proudly at the crowd of grubs that the others and I had formed around her, and at that moment, only for a moment, I forgot that I had ever been anything other than her devoted little drone, ready to serve her in any way that I could.

Soon the giant insectoid horse creature left, and the unnatural devotion faded into the background. I had a few minutes to ponder her resemblance to my original mother before a much smaller creature entered our hatching chamber. It had a face very similar to a grub's, with holes in its legs, a blue shell on its back, insect wings, and fins for a mane and tail. I had just crawled over to it when its horn acquired a green glow. As that strange, curved protrusion started to light up, an aura of the same color surrounded me, along with the others, and lifted me into the air. The creature then buzzed its wings and flew down a passage while carrying us after it.


	2. Speechless Connection

The older insectoid horse, who I believed to be an adult example of my species, navigated through different passages, flying through holes that closed behind it, and eventually dropped all of us off in a small room. Then it left, sealing the entrance behind it. After the creature was gone, I slithered around and explored the new area. I eventually discovered that I could climb up walls, and used that ability to explore the room from every available angle. After I was sure that I had seen everything, I attempted to make my tiny horn glow like the adult bug creature's had. I tried to flex my horn, but couldn't even squeeze out a spark of green.

I waited in the dark, greenish-blue stone room for a long time, climbing up to look at the glowing, green, cocoon-shaped lights, hissing, play-fighting with the other grubs, and sleeping, until the bug that had brought me there returned. It flew into the center of the cavern, lit its horn, and created a sphere of delicious-smelling pink energy. Once the sphere appeared, I hungrily opened my mouth, and my horn automatically lit up with a familiar green glow. I used the power emanating from my horn to pull some of the energy towards me, and started to drink it. It was wonderful, like cheeseburgers, cake, chocolate, ice cream, and cookies all rolled into one delicious product, and I couldn't get enough of it. I bumped smaller grubs out of the way to claim as much as I could, but once all of the energy was gone, I still felt like I hadn't gotten enough. I chirped angrily as the older insect left our cave. I tried to follow it, but I couldn't crawl fast enough.

Left alone with the other grubs again, I tried to reignite my stubby horn. Now that I knew what the flow of energy was supposed to feel like, I had an easier time getting results, but all that I managed to do in what seemed like an hour of work was to send out a tiny ember of emerald flame.

Without any other pleasant topics to think about, I turned to question the workings of my new species. We all looked like crosses between horses and bugs, with some reptilian attributes, and we lived in some sort of cave, or hive. Were the others sentient? What was the reality-warping ability that we could use with our horns? What was the pink energy that I had eaten? Would I ever leave the cave? What was our society like? How long would I live, and would I reincarnate again when I died? At the moment, I would have been happy just to know my species's name. When I stopped after that question, I suddenly received the answer. Changeling. I was called a changeling. Specifically, I was a changeling grub, soon to be a changeling nymph.

After tapping into the strange source of knowledge, I became exhausted. As I slept, I had my first dream as a changeling. I dreamt that I was human again, watching a movie in the living room with my mother. It was pleasant for a while, but when I turned to her, the large female changeling had taken her place.

I woke up hissing and found myself inside of the nursery cave with the other grubs again. I crept into a small circular hole in a wall and took a moment away from the others to close my eyes and remember who I had been. It was stupid to be upset, I had been only a few months away from leaving for college, anyway, but for some reason, for the next few minutes, I couldn't stop whimpering.

The next few weeks passed slowly, as I learned more and more about the way my new world worked. Other grubs started drawing knowledge from what I learned was called the hivemind soon after me. I learned that I was indeed inside a hive, in a land that was protected by the power of a giant throne that absorbed any non-changeling magic around it. I also learned that I could perform magic with a power channeled through my horn. I recognized that the large female changeling that I had seen on my hatching day was my new queen and that I would one day serve her and the hive. Most strangely of all, I found that I needed to feed on the love of non-changelings and that I would fall into hibernation if I ran out of it. After a month of learning and feeding on love, the other grubs and I coated ourselves in a strange wax and fell into a deep sleep. We stayed in that state for quite a long time.


	3. Training Days

While I slept, I dreamed of my human life. I remembered the softness of my old stuffed animals, the satisfaction of finishing my first books, the smell of fresh pancakes in the morning, the thrill of playing video games, the pride of acing a test, the work I had put into my grades, and the terror of the accident that ended it all. For whatever reason, I took longer than the other nymphs to move after I woke up.

I wasn't a helpless grub anymore! While I still wasn't anywhere near full-sized, I had the basic shape of a grown changeling, with four hole-filled legs, wings, a shell, and a set of fins. Looking around showed that I had been moved as I slept, and was now in a much larger room, filled with training dummies, mirrors, an obstacle course, and what looked like a chalkboard.

Before I could even attempt to use my new legs, a burst of fire appeared in front of the blackboard, and a changeling walked out from it. I tried to fly over the heads of the other nymphs to get a better view of it, only to lose control and flip headfirst into the ground. Those nymphs who were close enough to see me snickered. After spending a few seconds trading hisses with the barbarians around me, I looked up and realized that the adult changeling was gone. It had written a set of instructions on the blackboard before leaving: Practice shapeshifting.

Upon receiving my orders, I searched through the hivemind and found that I now possessed the ability to change my form. Every changeling could summon a magical flame that burned away its body and replaced it with the form of basically anything it chose until it either made the choice to retake its original body or ran out of energy. Apparently, these transformations could allow a changeling to heal from just about any injury, as it took on a fresh copy of its perfect original form every time it changed, preventing the changeling from aging or suffering from almost any illness.

Now that I knew what the rows of mirrors were for, I stepped up to one of them and lit my horn, focusing on the form of a giant python. When I opened my eyes to peer into the mirror, I wasn't exactly what I had expected. My body was definitely that of a snake, but rather than the gigantic length of scales and muscles that I had attempted to become, I was a tiny ball python.

What had I done wrong? I had done everything that the hivemind's record had listed. Maybe my memories weren't the only things that separated me from the other nymphs. Was I defective? Or was I just too stupid to manage complicated magic? Watching other nymphs around me become large, threatening dogs and fierce, sharp-taloned hawks didn't help with my self-doubts, even though many other nymphs couldn't even manage to morph into proper rats.

After taking on my snake form, I coiled up and moped until I was too bored to stay still any longer. Exploring my current form seemed like a good idea, so I decided to practice moving around. My first attempt at moving forward left me twisted into a knot, but with a fair bit of determination, I managed to successfully slither for a meter before tangling myself up again.

After a few dozen failed attempts, I finally managed to slither a lap around the training cavern. I was going to see how many laps I could perform before exhausting myself, but in the middle of my second lap, I received a new order in the form of a clear mental command to begin combat training.

I returned to my natural form and clumsily trotted up to a group of equine training dummies. Some nymphs had already started to attack the pony shaped punching bags, using their new shapeshifting abilities to maul their targets. I knew that my tiny, non-venomous snake wouldn't be strong enough to take anything on in a fight, even if that thing was a lifeless sack of stuffing, so I remained in changeling form and pounced on my dummy's back, before snapping my jaws shut around its neck.

I practiced striking in every way that I could imagine, chomping down on my target's legs, neck, and even underbelly. I imagined that I was engaged in a battle for an entire horse's worth of fresh love and knocked my foe's legs out from under it, before rolling it over, pushing a hoof into its chest, lighting my horn, and opening my mouth, as if I was really drawing love out of my captive.

After what seemed like a long time, our caretaker changeling returned in its same flash of green fire and flatly told us to climb into whatever holes we could find in the chasm's walls and go to sleep, as there would be a special treat waiting for us early the next morning.

It didn't seem to be very long before the caretaker returned. It told us to follow it, opened a large hole in our room's wall, and led us down a number of sloping paths that were lit by glowing green cocoons until we reached the exit of the hive.

From my view, there wasn't much in the immediate area beyond the hive's walls. Everything was grey and lifeless. Among the barren hills stood dozens of columns of adult changelings. Some wore shiny blue armor, and all looked fierce and ready for battle. The large female changeling that I had seen on my hatching day was standing in front of them.

The caretaker smirked at us and said, "That is our queen, preparing the greatest of our hive's warriors to invade a pathetically weak kingdom to the south. Our spies have reported that a recent festival, combined with record harvests, has left it full of love and that it lacks a proper military. After the queen returns, we'll all be able to feed every day for months!"

The other nymphs and I cheered on the warriors as they set out for the sheep kingdom, and when we returned to our chamber the air was seething with cries of, "When I grow up, I'll be the strongest warrior ever!"

When I woke up the next day, I received a mental command to practice combat and shapeshifting and to sift through the hive-mind for useful information. I figured that I would save information gathering as a reward for progress in the former skills, and threw myself into the dreaded art of shapeshifting. After once again stalking up to the chamber's row of mirrors, I attempted to transform myself into a threatening serpent. This time, I settled for an attempt to become something more reasonable: a small rattlesnake. Sadly, I was once again disappointed with my abilities, as my curtain of sickly green flames lifted to reveal a mere ratsnake.

It wasn't what I was hoping for, but a ratsnake form was capable of putting up some sort of fight. Even though I knew that my form wasn't entirely pathetic, I could only feel disgusted as I gazed at my scaly grey face. I flicked my tongue, smelling the strange waxy aroma of what I had previously believed to be stone walls, and looked into my circular pupils. Maybe becoming snakes just wasn't my talent; I could try becoming a mammal instead.

On second thought, snake transformations were absolutely my forte. My attempt to become a simple ferret left me as a mouse the size of a human pinky finger. After that failure, I knew that I needed to keep to creatures with scales for now. Maybe some sort of lizard? I could probably manage an iguana.

No, I couldn't manage an iguana. But I could manage a foot long spiny lizard. It wasn't the best form, I would probably stick to that of a ratsnake for combat, but a lizard could be good for camouflage. I could stick to the enemy's wall and simply listen to important conversations. Now that I thought of it, all of my forms so far were good for hiding in plain sight. Perhaps that was my talent! Maybe I would be a spy one day.

Combat practice was far more enjoyable than shapeshifting. I took on my ratsnake form, wrapped around my dummy opponent's legs, and climbed around its chest, squeezing as hard as I could. I also fought in my natural form, practicing attacks on all of the common weak-points that I could find in the hivemind.

After I had finished my harder tasks, I tapped into the hivemind and began to research magic. I learned that magic was controlled by desire. It could be used for almost any purpose, as long as both the individual's magical ability and will were strong enough.

Before I went to sleep that night, as I was curled up in my normal sleeping hole, I poked my head out and decided to try one of the magic tricks that I had learned about. I attempted to use the simplest spell that I had seen: telekinesis. I shrouded my horn in a weak green glow and focused on how much I needed the small rock on the cavern floor to float. I saw my sickly emerald aura appear around the pebble a foot below me, but I couldn't even get it to budge. I spent about a minute pushing my horn as much as I could, before sighing and closing my eyes.

I dreamed of a raging sea. I was speeding above it, on a great white arc that touched the clouds. I was almost at the top, close to the bright blue sky, when my head started to pound. Pieces of my vision began to burst with pulsing lights, and then I was falling, and then the water started to drag me down, and then there was nothing.

The next morning, I woke up long before any of the other nymphs, jumped to the ground, and made another attempt at lifting a pebble. I ground my teeth, squinted, and pulled up. This time, the tiny chip of stone lifted an inch into the air, before green sparks exploded out of my horn and I lost control.

I rested on the cave floor for the next few hours, giving my horn enough time to stop burning. The sharp barb finally stopped throbbing by the time someone entered the cavern, though it still felt a bit sore as I trotted behind the older changeling, vibrating my wings wildly in an attempt to catch up with it.

As I trotted along with the herd of nymphs, I noticed certain areas of the hive that I hadn't in my previous journeys. There were caverns full of sleeping holes, chasms packed with armor, weapons, and smithing materials, and massive rooms populated by training warriors. By the time we reached our destination, I was near bursting with excitement for whatever I was about to see.

After our guardian spoke with one of the hive's armored guards, it finally took us out into the grey, stony desert. We all gathered around it as it instructed us to practice flying and assigned us to different groups. I was part of patrol seven and was to move out to the north with two other nymphs.

My group-mates were a larger changeling with particularly jagged leg-holes and a lighter blue shell, and a changeling around my size with pointy ears and a long tail. Light-shell took the lead, turning to me and Long-tail and snarling, "Well, you heard him! Come on, let's fly!", before jetting off. I jumped up after him and pushed my wings as hard as I could, snickering with joy as I easily passed Long-tail.

I was finally flying! Gravity would never be a threat again! As fast as I went, I could never pass Light-shell, but I moved much faster than Long-tail. It was an amazing experience; I had always been slow as a human. I soared over sharp-tipped hills and small, sunken valleys, grinning as the land blurred around me until I finally began to cackle.

After we had flown for a few miles, Light-shell suddenly straightened himself out and started to hover. I couldn't slow down, so I jetted past him as he sent a blast of green magic from his horn. Eventually managing to turn around, I flew back over to him and mimicked his position, finding a small cocoon beneath him. He had captured a desert hare. Another hare leaped out from a nearby burrow, and I performed my first combat spell.

As the vulnerable, love-filled animal leaped in front of me, all of the information I had analyzed about magic suddenly snapped into place. My prey was trembling before me, all that I needed to do to claim it was to dig into my magic reserves, activate them with my desire to create a stream of incapacitating wax, and send a blast of arcane energy out through my horn. After a single second, my target was comatose inside of a prison cocoon.

A third hare fled out of its burrow. Long-tail captured that one, but I barely noticed the other nymph's triumph. I was too busy reveling in my own. I landed in front of my captured enemy, lit my horn, and devoured its love. Once I had drained all of the life out of my hare, I looked to Light-shell and Long-tail and saw that they had done the same. I laid myself down on my stomach, and, in my joy at a nearly full belly, cackled along with my two new friends.

As we flew back to the hive, Light-shell and I tried to cocoon Long-tail. The pointy-eared nymph wasn't as slow as he had seemed to be; he was the only one of us with the sense to pace himself, so he had more than enough energy to race ahead. I was the one to bind his wings in the end. He hissed at me from the ground, just as Light-shell chuckled, "Nice shot, Long-Fangs."

After I was back in the training chamber, I walked over to the rows of mirrors and took my first long look at myself. It was easy to see where the nickname Long-Fangs came from; my canine fangs were significantly longer than the average changeling's. Outside of my prodigiously lengthy incisors, I had few distinguishing features. My leg holes were a tad more rounded than those I had seen before, but that was about it when it came to my peculiar traits.

The next morning was another day of training, but shapeshifting practice seemed far more enjoyable with other nymphs keeping me company. Sure, they laughed at me when they saw that the most threatening form I could take was a ratsnake, but the look on Longtail's face when I slithered up his legs and bound him like a rabbit in a snare more than paid that debt.

I watched Light-shell and Long-tail take on the forms of a small alligator and a barn owl, respectively. Both of them were far better shapeshifters than me-of course they were, I was awful. Then Light-shell and I giddily watched Long-tail fly up and land on one of the training cave's mirrors, stare down at the nymph that was using it, and screech, scaring him just as he began the process of shapeshifting, making his own magic explode in his face. Pathetic as I was, at least I wasn't quite so weak as him.

After enjoying our little joke, Light-shell, Long-tail and I headed over to the training dummies. This time, they fought back; some sort of enchantment had been used to animate them. Long-tail was knocked on his back before he had landed a single blow on his target. Light-shell managed to keep fighting for an entire minute but eventually lost as well. Both of them watched, bruised, as I solemnly marched up to my opponent.

The first thing that I did was spray a line of wax at my enemy. The dummy managed to avoid my first attack and my second, but my third trapped it inside a triangular cage. It tried to jump over the sticky lines on the ground, but one of its hooves fell into the adhesive substance, allowing me to shoot its three other legs, saunter up to it, and chomp down on its neck.

My finishing blow forced the dummy to teleport back to its starting position, and the area around it to return to normal. When I heard the cheers from my audience, I knew that I had found my purpose.

That night, I slept in a hole right next to those of Light-shell and Long-tail. We had all proved that we had talents to offer and even grown to like each other. I would practice fighting until I was a flawless warrior to prove that I was worthy of my two allies. I would keep going until I was the most powerful changeling soldier in the hive.


	4. Free Reign

After a few more days of training, all of us were finally allowed to leave our chamber and roam the hive. On the first day after I received my new freedom, I pulled a map of the hive's layout from the hivemind and began to visit areas that I assumed would be interesting. I passed many older changelings as I flew through the twisted and constantly shifting halls to my destinations; some were on patrol, others were patching and creating new tunnels, and a few were even leaving the hive - probably on their way to posts as spies in prospective target nations.

The first place I visited was the nursery where I had been hatched. The eggs inside were still whole, but they would open soon. The current clutch was almost as big as my own, with fifty eggs, and I didn't think that it was the only one in the hive. There must have been hundreds scattered in other hatcheries. With our numbers, our magic, and our combat abilities, we changelings had to be the most powerful race in the world.

The next area I came to was the adult training pit. It was much like the nymph room, but rather than merely mauling training dummies, the changelings inside sparred with each other. They were quite skilled, the matches' victors would always use a finishing blow just gentle enough to be non-lethal, and then allow their opponents to shapeshift their wounds away before turning to attack new partners.

I was on my way to find a prison-cocoon to look at when I saw another nymph playing with some sort of frog. He was shorter than me, with a thick, stumpy horn, and his pet was small, muddy brown, and utterly repulsive. Nothing that wasn't a changeling or a prisoner should be in the hive; this idiot had brought in a contaminant! I couldn't resist such a perfect opportunity to display what little shapeshifting prowess I had and help benefit the hive at the same time! I landed far enough behind him that he didn't notice me, took the form of a garden snake, slithered up behind him, and gulped down his little pet, before rearing up and hissing in his face. He squeaked and jumped back, only coming out of his surprise when I showed my real form and flew away, cackling. I left him screaming at me to bring his pet frog back.

As I twisted away from the stumpy horned nymph, I ended up slamming right into the cocoon I had been heading for. I whimpered and darted back from the unexpected obstacle, and then kept a good distance away from it. The wax prison was more disturbing than I had expected, with the creature inside staring out in terror. I squinted and took a closer look, finding that the trapped form was an armored pony with a pair of feathered wings.

Not about to let a prisoner intimidate me, I lit my horn and stole a bit of love from it before I left. One day, I would take prisoners of my own. I would fight enemies of the queen, take the freshest love, and bring prosperity to my hive. I couldn't wait!

The next day was more interesting than most—instead of normal shapeshifting and battle practice, we faced a simulation of an invasion. The practice dummies were spread across the training room, perfectly still as we received our instructions. The cloth ponies were of all the different types I had learned of, with horns, wings, or neither.

Light-shell was the first to jump out into the crowd of cloth creatures. The second that he came into their field of vision, the chamber exploded into chaos. Light-shell immediately started attacking those of the dummies that stood and defended the others, while Long-tail cocooned the weaker enemies that were left undefended below. Some of both of their targets managed to escape, but I could think of a way to minimize failed attacks.

I focused on the form of a unicorn dummy and transformed… Only to find myself as a nymph dummy. That problem explained why no other nymphs had tried this strategy. Wait, did I have to be a dummy? In the middle of a changeling invasion, what savage would notice a tiny lizard below its feet? In a quick flash of emerald fire, I was suddenly a pitiful fraction of my former size, with a curled tail, a long tongue, and color-changing scales.

In my new chameleon form, I was able to climb down from my sleeping hole and head straight into the center of the pandemonium. I camouflaged my tiny reptilian body and maneuvered myself into the middle of a gigantic herd of cloth dummies. Up until the moment I retook my true glorious form and showered green wax down upon them, not one of them noticed me.

A few more applications of my little deception led to the majority of the successful capture attempts of the faux battle going to me. In the end, everyone was ready to compare his score. Of course, Light-shell and Long-tail's scores were the only ones that came close to mine.

A few days later, I led Long-tail and Light-shell through the hive's corridors. They wanted to see what a real prisoner looked like, and I was ready to show them how calm I was around one. I kept a map of the hive's layout in my head, and let my companions glare in jealousy as I easily weaved through suddenly appearing entrances and rambling tunnels until we finally reached a cocoon. This time the creature inside was a sheep, fresh from the hive's most recent invasion. I gazed coolly at the comatose animal, a smug smirk on my face, while Long-tail whimpered, and even Light-shell couldn't help shivering.


	5. Slumber Vacation

I couldn't tell how much time had passed before the tiredness seeped into me and the rest of the clutch, but I knew that I had defeated twenty dummies in single combat and taken the highest number of hostages in ten invasion simulations. I didn't win every battle exercise, but I won more than any other nymph. As for shapeshifting, I still couldn't manage inanimate objects or animals larger than my true form, like some other changelings, but I had expanded my repertoire with the forms of an iguana, a tiny tortoise, and, most impressively, my first actually dangerous form, an asp, and my first successful non-reptile form, a crow.

When it came to learning from the hivemind, I didn't need to go through the normal subjects. Since I already knew the average private high-school education's worth of facts, I used the hivemind to educate myself on interesting things, like magic, monsters, and anatomy. Once I was finished with academic pursuits each day, I would read some work of literature recorded in the hivemind, or re-live the experiences of a changeling soldier. One of the stories I read was called The Tale of the Lion and the Viper.

Once, a great pride of lions was arguing in its den—trying to decide who would travel to the snake lands that year and try to convert their residents to their morals. For as long as they could remember, one lion had been chosen, and for as long as they could remember, that lion had never returned.

That year Sharp-Tooth, the brother of the last year's lost lion, volunteered to go. He wanted to find his sister, or at least what had happened to her. The other lions each agreed, and, when rolled by the elders, the sacred stones they used for all great decisions rolled in his favor, with each showing its sharpened face.

Sharp-Tooth warily left the savanna, keeping low to the ground. The serpents could kill him at any time they wished, as they had never been given the wisdom of the great stones. He needed to be careful of what he spoke and did in their presence. When he finally came to the snakes' home, he found a beautiful grassland, speckled with warm basking stones.

As he respectfully bowed to the Serpent Queen, a great black mamba sitting on a flat rock, all of the nearby serpents curiously turned to look at him. One of these snakes was an emerald viper, who held a knowing gaze in her dark, speckled-green eyes as they scanned his face. The Serpent Queen reared up and spoke in a great raspy voice, "You have come to force your meaningless morals upon us, so, like all others of your kind, you will be watched as you move through our lands. Viper!"

At her queen's call, the green viper slithered over to Sharp-Tooth, bowing respectfully before the mamba. Sharp-Tooth noticed that she had somehow lost the very tip of her tail. "You will guard this lion, and ensure that his preaching does no harm."

The green viper followed Sharp-Tooth wherever he went as he searched through the sea of grass for evidence of his sister's presence. Eventually, the emerald snake asked him, " What do you intend to do if you find that some snake killed your sister?"

"Go to the rocks and beg their permission to duel the killer to the death, of course."

"Why would you need to ask some rocks for permission?"

Sharp-Tooth could not understand what the serpent was saying, "The great stones of the mountain know all, and do all. If I take action against their will, horrible misfortune will fall upon me!"

The green viper cocked her head, "Stones are for basking, not advising. We never consult rocks before doing what we wish, why should you? No great misfortune has destroyed our lands."

The lion had no answer for the viper's questions, and so continued with one of his own. "So you seek no permission to duel one of your tribe?"

"We must be strong enough to win the duel, and smart enough to explain our actions to the queen. We need nothing but our own skill. Besides, we rarely have a quarrel worthy of a death duel among our own kind. Most often, we simply steal an offender's prey and otherwise harass him, rather than killing him."

The next day, Sharp-Tooth came across a large brown serpent sleeping in a small, warm clearing that was exposed to sunlight. When the creature asked him why he had come to the serpent lands, he readily told it the full answer. The serpent disappeared into the grass, quite possibly carrying a warning to the previous lion's killer. In response to this, the green viper asked, "Why did you tell him what you were looking for?"

"Because it was honorable. Lies and other deceptions are never to be used."

The viper simply replied, "Why?"

Sharp-Tooth was starting to become frustrated. "Because they are harmful and cowardly!"

The emerald snake smirked, "More harmful than a duel? Why wouldn't you wish to harm your enemy? Lies merely make an undertaking easier and soothe conflict. There is nothing cowardly in the skillful use of words to control another."

The days and months after went similarly. Sharp-Tooth would try to convince the viper of the correctness of some piece of the rocks' wisdom, and she would ruin his logic with one horrid, wonderful word: why.

One day, as Sharp-Tooth was perusing a patch of grass infused with his sister's scent, he came across another creature. A bear was sitting under a nearby tree, gnawing on the unmistakable knuckle-joint of a lion. His sister's murderer had never been a snake, he was staring directly at it, yet he could not muster the courage to attack. He had expected an assassin that had used poison to bring down his sister, Emerald-Eye, not a hulking brute. He could never defeat this animal in honorable combat, but perhaps there was another way. He remembered a certain piece of the viper's advice. It was better to leave one's victim ignorant of a coming danger than to allow it time to prepare. He would wait until the bear was too deep in the tall grass to see him before he attacked.

The green viper seemed quite proud of him, cheerfully wrapping around his chest as he waited with his head below the yellowed stalks of grass. The bear never came into his range, but at least Sharp-Tooth now knew where to find it. He returned to his makeshift home near the viper's den ready to do whatever was necessary to defeat his enemy. Perhaps the green snake was correct, the stones had never punished her, why would they punish him? He paid no mind to the strange soreness in his tail as he fell asleep.

When Sharp-Tooth woke, he found a sleeping red viper lying on top of him. He roared and lunged at the invader, throwing his tail back to keep it out of the crimson snake's range. The serpent whipped back, seemingly following his tail. Then he had a strange urge. Suddenly, he could see his own face. He let out a sharp hiss with the strange new head he was gazing out of, and then realized what had happened. The stones had finally punished him.

His tail had become a long crimson red viper. He could manipulate it so easily that one could have mistaken it for his true head. Well, he had already paid for what he was about to do, now he had no excuse not to execute his plan.

Viper praised Sharp-Tooth's new tail as he laid a feast of meat and berries deep in the grass where he had seen the bear. Then she waited with him while he watched the area. Eventually, he turned his serpent head and spoke with her while he waited. He was glad she had come with him. He had grown to enjoy her company. Sometimes it seemed almost… familiar. After she had waited with him until the sun began to set, she told him one horrid, wonderful fact that he couldn't believe he had never seen on his own. "A rock can be carved to always show its sharp side. How many times have you seen the great stones land with their rounded ends up?"

Before he had fully processed what the green viper had said, Sharp-Tooth saw his target lumber over to his trap. Everything the viper had said made complete sense now-the stones were just rocks. Every time an elder had rolled a stone, it had shown its spike. Everything he had known of the great stones-of-the-mountain that had birthed the world had come from one of the ancient lions who advised the tribe. The viper had been right about everything! Now it was finally time to take his vengeance, not in an honorable way, but in the best way!

Sharp-Tooth leaped onto the bear's back the second it set its head down to begin eating his trap. He clawed into the monster's shoulders and bit deep into its neck. The great brown behemoth roared, rose onto its hind legs, and slammed the lion's body to the ground, paralyzing it. While his legs were being mangled, Sharp-Tooth twisted his red viper head over to the bear's bait and spat as much venom as he could muster into the folds of the meat. Seeing this attack on its food, the raging monster clawed at Sharp-Tooth 's remaining head, cutting the snake tail off at its base.

Sharp-Tooth was amazed to find himself alive and slithered deep into the grass as quickly as he could. He embraced the green viper in his red coils and watched with her as the bear slowly died of his poison, before returning to the queen's sunning stone with his green-scaled sister.

By the time he reached the queen, his tail had stopped bleeding. He could see a lion near the stones, speaking with the great black mamba. To his undying pride, the queen turned to him and called, "Viper! You will guard this lion, and ensure that his preaching does no harm."

I had just returned to my sleeping hole after taking my almost-filling dinner from a cocooned pegasus and was learning about proper fire-spell technique when I suddenly curled up under an all-consuming sense of exhaustion. I didn't want to lose the day's free time, so I fought to keep my eyes open, only to see my own horn coat me in green wax before I plummeted into sleep.

After a long stretch of warm, comforting dreamlessness, I found myself in an arena. It was a beautiful building, made of a circular black marble wall that seemed to go on forever, with sporadically placed holes for exits and a single gigantic tunnel in the center of its stage. Strangely, its endless rows of seats were all empty. This wasn't a normal dream - I never had lucid dreams. Something had created this scenario for a purpose, and I could guess what that purpose was. My training had been getting more realistic all along; this was probably the next step. That guess was verified when a seemingly intelligent bull stepped out of the arena's central tunnel and bolted toward me, horns aimed to kill.

I leapt into the air the second before the bull's horns would have gored me, stamping down on the creature's head on my way up. I kept above my opponent and attempted to trap it in a circle of wax, only for it to see through my strategy and bolt out of the way, before kicking a rock the size of a hoof at my head. I didn't have time to dodge the projectile, so I tried to cast my first energy beam to knock it out of the way. The spell wasn't as strong as I had expected it to be, and the chunk of rock still hit me, but its impact was greatly reduced.

I hissed down at the bull and shot off another blast at it. I was too small for any of my physical attacks to have an impact, so I needed to defeat it with magic. My attack did hit its target, but it only made it angrier. After that failure, I decided to try a new strategy. The bull's fur seemed quite flammable, so even if I could only cast weak fire spells, if I used enough of them, the creature would burn.

I darted around, shooting fireball after fireball, and soon I was victorious. My enemy fell to the ground in a blazing inferno and finally stayed down. As I landed, its smoldering body faded away.

After the bull, I was given some time to practice shapeshifting. I decided to try for one of the most interesting creatures I had heard of, a dragon! Well, a teenage dragon. They were impressively dangerous, seemed within a nymph's capabilities, and fit my normal reptilian theme.

I couldn't manage a dragon; I ended up simply becoming an iguana, but on my next transformation attempt I actually managed to become a small viper, my most dangerous form yet.

I had expected a new enemy to appear after my successful transformation, but after thirty minutes of waiting, nothing came. It seemed that I needed to become something more impressive than a snake.

I tried to become a dragon again, and after I failed, I kept trying, again, and again, and again, until I had wreathed myself in flames so many times that my chitin was steaming. I couldn't give up, this place was too empty to be alone in! I bit down, barely blocking a scream, and tried one more time… And that final attempt left me as a dragon.

I was a very small, pathetic dragon, barely more than a newborn, really, but the dream judged my form good enough to accept. When I changed back and fell to the ground, sobbing as I waited for my chitin to stop smoking, the world around me disappeared.

As I rested, I remembered things that I had tried very hard to forget. I remembered slowly rising water in a metal cage. I remembered the tests that I had failed, and I hated myself for those failures again, and again, and again with every single red marked question that passed before my eyes. I saw myself fight, and work, and eventually make up for those mistakes, and I knew that I needed to do those same things again.

When I returned to the dream coliseum, I turned to my opponent immediately. The creature that I faced this time was a deer. It was a large stag, proud and tall, with a huge rack of antlers. When I first rushed toward it from behind to bite down on its neck, it leapt out of the way, caught me in its antlers, and threw me into the air. Now I was angry! My shell hadn't been pierced, but this weak herbivore had dared to land a blow on me! Well, if it wanted to be difficult, I would just need to make its death a little less clean.

I blasted a line of fire at the deer, and, as I had expected, it dodged. I followed it with my flames, forcing it into a circle, and then closing it in. Once the beast was trapped, I hit it with blasts of magic, taking out its legs one at a time and snapping off its horns before biting into its neck.

I went angrily into my shapeshifting practice. That stag shouldn't have been able to land a single blow on me. Fighting was what I was best at! I had to work harder!

I didn't want to shapeshift into a stag, not after dealing with that wretched creature, so I tried to become an even more poisonous snake. It took me so long that I needed to take three separate breaks due to overheating, but I eventually managed to become a rattlesnake.

This time my rest showed me images of the college I had wanted to attend and the people I had known. I only really missed one of them. How was my mother doing? Was she alright? Would she think that I had left her on purpose? I didn't have much time to ponder these questions before my new opponent revealed itself.

Things continued in a similar fashion for the next few exercises. I killed or cocooned enemy after enemy, and learned to take a new, more difficult form after each fight. I became familiar with the use of combat magic against helpless targets on the ground, which was partly why my next opponent proved to be so difficult.

I had just managed to become a greater shadow serpent, a twelve-foot long, highly venomous snake, and my largest form yet when my final enemy climbed out into the stadium floor. It was a unicorn with bright blue fur and a statue emblem on its flanks that I had learned, while fighting a pegasus and earth pony before it, was called a cutie mark. I assumed that it would have similar abilities to an earth pony with a horn to use as a spear, so I rose into the air, out of its reach, and sent a wide blast of magic toward it, knowing that it would be too slow to get out of its way. When I saw the horned pony summon an energy shield to block my attack, I was so surprised that I left myself wide open for its counterblast.

The unicorn's attack was just as strong as mine had been and threw me backward until I smashed into one of the Colosseum's walls and plummeted into the ground. I pulled myself back to my hooves and darted out of the way seconds before another blast of pink magic would have smashed into my muzzle. This pitiful, pastel-colored shetland had magic? I should have consulted the hivemind on its species before attacking, but how could I have known that another creature, never mind one as weak as a pony, could use something so powerful?

Whether it had magic or not, I was still more powerful than this baby-blue pony! I summoned a shield, hissed, and charged at the creature, summoning a halo of fire just in front of my protective aura. The unicorn summoned its own shield again and tried to parry my attack. I wouldn't let her drive me off course, though; I pushed her back, my flames burning away her shield until the pink barrier finally disappeared, before trapping her legs in wax and cocooning her as she struggled to pull herself free.

After defeating the unicorn, I decided that a similar creature would be a good form to use as a disguise-the hivemind told that ponies were plentiful and lived close to the hive. I imagined a stallion similar to the pony I had just defeated, with blue fur, soft purple eyes, and a darker blue mane. In a flash of green fire, I had become the mental image. The transformation was easier than I had expected it to be, all of my practice had done some good after all. Now, all that I needed to do was choose was the cutie mark.

I looked deeper into the hivemind's explanation of ponies and saw that many of them had names that related to their cutie marks, so I decided to make up a name first. Pony names were strange and childish, with first names modifying last names, so mine had to be something like Crystal Crane, or Namby Pamby, or Crimson Cloud. My new form was that of a blue unicorn with purple eyes, so some good names could be…. Cerulean Sapphire? Violet Voltage? Serene Skies? No, I wouldn't use any of those names, even for a disguise. Even though I would definitely hate whatever name I ended up with - it had to be realistic; I needed to choose carefully…. Sapphire Scorch! It was the cute kind of stupid, and, more importantly, easy to remember!

After making up a name, creating a cutie mark was easy. With a quick flicker of green fire, a turquoise flame was branded on my rear. Once I had finished my go-to disguise, I sank into a dreamless sleep.


	6. New Recruit

When I woke up, I was a battle-ready changeling drone. The only way to tell me apart from any other changeling in the hive would be to carefully check my hole pattern, and take notice of my longer than average fangs.

As I sat in my cramped sleeping hole, still inside of my cocoon, I received a message. Jerking up so quickly that I smacked my horn into the ceiling, I learned that I had been selected to be a warrior, and was to report to patrol 117.

Once I knew where to go, I blasted through my cocoon and climbed to the ground. Before I could leave the chamber, I spotted Light-shell and Long-tail. They both still lived up to their nicknames, but Light-shell had grown a bit thicker while Long-tail had a slimmer build. When I walked up to them, Long-tail boasted that he had been chosen as a construction-drone, and would be designing new parts of the hive to be fit for tricks and battle strategies, along with repairing damaged areas. That made sense, as he had always been good at setting up traps and taking advantage of the environment around him in battle. Light-shell was a warrior and headed to the same patrol I had been assigned to. He wasn't as good a strategist as I was, but he made up for that deficiency with raw strength, both magical and physical. He was also a great leader; I could admit that, even if my jealousy made it a little painful.

We talked together as we made our way to our assignments. Long-tail was the first to chatter about his new position, "The two of you can go off and fight, you love violent victories. Don't get me wrong, I love them too, but I love building things more. I can always wait for a fight to come to the hive, or an invasion so large that every changeling gets summoned, but there would have to be one hell of a disaster for a non-construction changeling to get to work on the hive."

Eventually, Long-tail had to split off of our path and fly up through a hole that opened in the ceiling. Then I only had Light-shell to talk to. "Life is going to be boring for a little while, isn't it? We'll probably be on guard duty for quite a while, even if there are any invasions. The spies will probably see twenty times the action we even get near, even the ones posing as animals."

After a brief argument proving my point, Light-shell hissed and scowled for the rest of the flight. We eventually met our patrol in a rocky corridor. Its walls were uneven, and protruding bits of rock provided enough cover for five changelings to hide behind even one of them. When we landed, there were already nine other changelings standing there.

We waited for a few minutes before twelve other changelings arrived. We split into groups of three to take their places. Light-shell and I stayed in the same group and took a mostly-straight corridor south. Our companion wasn't very talkative. We passed a squad of construction-drones around the middle of our six-hour shift, but outside of them, there was nothing to see.

After we had switched with fresh drones, Light-shell and I headed to a training pit. It reminded me of the obsidian arena from my dreams, only colored in the blues and greys of the hive. I took a battle stance against Light-shell and threw a blast of magic at him. Predictably, he blocked it, but the time it took him to summon his shield gave me a chance to attempt to teleport around him. I did end up behind him, but I only had time to encase his legs in wax before I passed out from the strain.

When I woke up, Light-shell's smug grin was the first thing I saw. He pulled me up and told me that I had only been out for a few minutes, just as another changeling trotted over. His voice was arrogant, yet flavored with a hint of respect as he spoke, "You fight well, though you're barely more than nymphs. What should I call you two, so I can find you when you're more than scared little grubs?"

I growled and replied, "I'm Long-fangs, and this is Light-shell. Yeah, we fight well; we probably fight better than you."

"So the baby can speak! And it's still using its little grub-name! Call yourself something respectable! From now on, you're Stinger, and the one with the weird shell over there is Carapace. You'll thank me later."

We had a few more sparring matches after the older changeling left, and then met up with Long-tail to find sleeping holes. He'd been given a new name too, but his had come from his squad leader. It was a good enough name, all of our new titles were, really. Still, it would be strange for a while, calling him Spinneret.

As I dreamed that night, I walked through my old school with my old body. As I moved forward, the halls slowly turned to bluestone. Eventually, I was stepping over the skeletons of the opponents I had faced in the arena. I came to the bathroom to wash my face, and when I looked into the mirror, my fanged smile and solid-blue eyes stared back at me.

When I woke up and slipped into a patrol, I was with Light-... Carapace, again. Our third patrol-mate was named Antenna. This time we were assigned a different area. We passed spires of rock, low tunnels, spiraling staircases, high plateaus, open chasms, and most of all, lots and lots of glowing cocoons. We stopped for a snack around halfway through our shift, even though Antenna was "too professional to eat on the job like a stupid nymph".

Carapace and I took a moment to talk during our unsatisfying lunch break since Antenna had finally left to sulk in some hole instead of scowling at us. Carapace couldn't wait to go back to the training room. He grunted, "I know that we have to prove ourselves before we get to fight in a real invasion, but this is so boring! At least the outer-patrols have a chance of finding something to attack; we're stuck flying around in circles all day! Nothing can even get near the hive! The queen's throne keeps any intruders from using magic, and without teleportation, flight, increased strength, or combat spells, they have less of a chance of getting through the outer-patrols and guards than we do of suddenly metamorphosing into pastel stag-beetles!"

I groaned and hissed along with Carapace, but I didn't mind our assignment as much as he did. Exploring the hive was almost fun, and familiarizing myself with my environment could give me an advantage if I ever needed to fight off an outsider in the hive. Maybe a prisoner would escape its cocoon, or its friends and family would brave the guards to make a rescue attempt.

After a few battles in the training pit, I listened to Spinneret as I fell asleep. He was exhausted, but happy. "Hive walls are easier to build than you'd think; all you have to do is spray wax into layers over and over again, and then wait for it to harden. One changeling could build a mile of tunnels in a day if it needed to, half a day if those tunnels were carved into the ground and only needed two or three layers of wax over them. The real difficulty comes from thinking up ways to make those tunnels and structures as confusing as possible. I think I'm already a better architect than half of my squadron!"

After around a month of normal, boring patrols, Carapace and I were assigned to a new area. Our route passed directly by the queen's throne room; as we flew by, we could occasionally hear its heavily armored guards gossiping about the queen's plans. I caught little snippets of information to distract Carapace with while we fought, but I didn't expect to learn anything too valuable. Yet one day, since the guards seemed so excited, I decided to try and find out more than just a sentence of information.

Once I had passed the queen's guards, I shifted into the form of a chameleon and crawled back over to them. I stayed on the ceiling, adding another layer of subtlety, and listened to the conversation below. "Now that the Zebricanae invasion is over, I've heard from some of the spies that they think the next one will be in the Longma kingdom - apparently there's been some huge earthquake and the dragon-horses are all riled up. Those beasts are strong, so the queen might lead this invasion herself! Every warrior will be needed: so we might actually see some action!"

Carapace was definitely pleased with my news, I was too, anyone could see that - we spent the rest of the patrol dancing through the air and cackling like madlings. Spinneret wasn't quite as pleased as we were, but he perked up quite a bit when I assured him that he could use some simple traps on enemy warriors, even if the fighting wasn't taking place in the corridors he'd known and built. We were trading ideas on our favorite tricks long after Carapace had fallen asleep.

As the next week passed, we were taunted by tiny snippets of information slowly being announced through the hivemind. First we were ordered to research longma, then non-combat drones were instructed to train as warriors, and finally, the queen called every changeling to prepare for an imminent invasion. For me, along with most changelings, preparations included feeding, assembling outside the hive, and finding our assigned commander (whose rank could be identified by a set of blue armor). Some unlucky warriors, however, were chosen to stay and guard the hive. I pitied them, but protecting the hive was more important than having a few more drones on the battlefield. They would always have the next invasion.

Carapace, Spinneret, and I stood out in the dark, windy hills with the same commander. His name was Chitin. Like all commanders, he wore a set of blue armor, but that protective material wasn't the only thing that made him stand out. Chitin was the strangest changeling I had ever seen-he had a massive, strangely shaped shell that instantly set him apart from anyone else.

Queen Chrysalis stood in the center of the swarm, surrounded by her mandible-armored guards. She was speaking to a changeling even weirder looking than Chitin. He had purple eyes and a huge purple shell, along with a red mane and tail. A quick search through the hivemind revealed this strange changeling to be named Pharynx; he was in charge of organizing the entire changeling army, and second in authority only to the queen herself.

Soon, the queen rose into the air and jetted off towards the target. As she went, Pharynx gave the signal to follow her. We crowded the sky like a swarm of locusts, split into thousands of hordes, each with a hundred changelings. We passed over grey hills through a grey sky, buzzing over the barren desert of our territory until we finally came to the strict line where trees and plant life appeared. As we crossed that line, we took the forms of birds, or bats, or even dragons. Carapace, Spinneret and I became ravens, while Chitin chose the body of a great blue dragon.

First, we made our way over Equestria, the land of the ponies. Carapace pointed out Canterlot, the nation's capital, as we passed, telling us how wonderful it would be when we finally sacked the city someday. It was a prime target, full of love, with only a pathetic mockery of an army. Our current target wasn't quite as deliciously love-soaked, but it would provide many prisoners to drain long after our glorious dinner was finished.

We split into our hordes before we entered longma territory. Even if our targets didn't know that we existed, it was best to be cautious. The land of the dragon-horses was beautiful. While it wasn't as cute and friendly as Equestria, its harsh, gem-filled mountains, pure waterfalls, and gnarled pine trees seemed to give off a darker aura that was far more majestic.

Though the cities we passed could have made great targets, I knew that our destination made them seem impoverished in comparison. Each longma city was built into a mountain. What could be seen from the entrance was only a glimpse at the true glory inside, but it was enough to make even the most spartan changeling gape in awe as it passed by. Inside of each inhabited mountain was a complex system of caves and tunnels, filled with dwellings, shops, and all manners of businesses carved perfectly into the natural rock, along with gigantic jewels that grew in the stone, like weeds.

It was said that the longma were once a great nation of pegasi, forming cities in the clouds and commanding the weather, living off of the few gems that grew to the surface of the region's mountains, providing for their every need by flying to other lands and trading their treasures, until they began to desire more riches. While the surface gems were enough to pay for food, normal appliances, and other minor luxuries, the pegasi began to hunger for ever more extravagance, ever more treasure, and ever more power. The magical growing gems were great sources of magic, but those that reached the surface were usually small, broken, impure things, only capable of simple elemental spells. Eventually, the land's inhabitants realized that far larger and more powerful jewels could be found beneath the mountains' surfaces, and started to tunnel into the rock to find them. Mining wasn't an easy task for the pegasi, who were used to open spaces and fresh, windy air, but they managed it. Eventually, the caverns' magic, influenced by their avarice, changed them, making them better suited for the environment, more capable of utilizing their gems, and even more prone to greed. Slowly, the pegasi grew scales, their hooves turned to claws, their teeth sharpened into fangs, their tails thickened into lizard-like appendages, and their wings warped to resemble those of bats. After years of slow metamorphosis, the inhabitants of the gem-mountains found themselves resembling dragons more than ponies.

The hivemind had told me that the longma capital was beautiful, but a simple description wasn't nearly enough to convey its true majesty. The entrance was built into a mountain so huge that it dwarfed every peak around it, and inside of the cavernous entrance were buildings carved from gemstones the size of skyscrapers. There were great castles made of ruby, emerald, topaz, sapphires, and even diamond, growing out of cave walls from every angle, with surfaces cut into infinite facets to perfectly catch firelight emanating from torches made of ruby chips. There were waterfalls streaming down from shelves of magical sapphire growing hundreds upon hundreds of feet into the air. There were courtyards, forests, and vales carved from peridot, bloodstone, and citrine.

Almost as impressive as the city they inhabited, the longma seemed to be made of gemstones themselves. They had scales of all sorts of colors that sparkled in their torches' light. If one ignored their slightly equine muzzles, fiery manes, and cutie marks, he could mistake them for carved stone-dragons.

As we entered the city, we all took the forms of bats, and despite the old adage, I could see quite well. The buildings farther inside had sustained great damage in the recent earthquake and were being slowly tended to by their owners. Gem magic may have been good at healing damage, but the rebuilding effort was slowed to a crawl by each longma's refusal to help any of its neighbors before repairing its own property.

Once we had blocked all of the cave system's exits, we started to shapeshift into longma. I dove into the window of a turquoise palace and took the form of a sleek black longma with purple eyes and a mane of green fire, chipped a hunk of turquoise off of a wall with my new talons, and flew off to find Carapace and Spinneret. The enemy hadn't noticed us yet, but soon they would grab their gems and race up to meet us in battle if they could tell who was one of us and who was one of them.

This was definitely my new favorite form! My flight was like a dance, graceful as a wind spirit as I glided over to my allies. Carapace was a muscular red longma with green eyes while Spinneret was a long, yellow, female longma with orange eyes. After we leaped into the air, Carapace and I twisted and circled around Spinneret, laughing at her declaration of, "This place is a paradise. Let's go burn it!"

By the time we reached the fighting, chaos already reigned in the city. The few longma that tried to flee were quickly captured or drained dry by the changelings guarding the exits, but the vast majority of the dragon-horses stood their ground and protected their homes, spewing fire, ice, thunder, and all sorts of other elements from their polished crystals. They were powerful, but they were far outnumbered, and even more wary of their compatriots with their inability to tell friend from foe. Still, some changelings were blasted to the ground, often with severe burns, frostbite, or other wounds; though it took only a flash of green flame for them to heal themselves, most were too tired to keep fighting afterward.

Carapace led our charge against an emerald green longma. She was crouched in an aggressive stance, defending her peridot palace. Carapace thrust the ruby he had collected forward and threw a torrent of fire at her. His flames chased her into a corner, allowing me to use my shard of turquoise to freeze her legs to a wall. Though we had her trapped, she used a piece of peridot to summon a growing cage of vines to keep us from getting close enough to drain her. It might have taken us hours to wear her down if Spinneret hadn't disguised himself as a stone of peridot in the wall behind her. After we finished absorbing her love, we all chipped off bits of peridot to keep as souvenirs. I took so many pieces that I needed to stop and retake my true form to conjure a bag for them. It was easier than I had expected, though not quite as natural as combat magic; the difference was like going from a simple multiplication problem to a fraction multiplication problem - it wasn't much harder, only different.

I defeated my next enemy on my own. I flew up to her and pretended to fight off an attacking changeling, only freezing his wings, knowing that he would be able to recover before hitting the ground, and then dropped my disguise just low enough to free my horn and cocoon her when her back was turned.

My next few fights were just as easy as those that had come before until I faced a huge brown male. When I tried to trick him into turning his back to me, he threw me into a quartz wall with a summoned boulder. Then he bared his horns and charged at me, screaming that he knew I only wanted to use the chaos to steal his treasure. I leapt out of the way and threw a cloud of ice shards at his face. He didn't seem to realize that I was an invader, but he was willing to fight anyone that got too close to his comparatively small quartz home. I leaped onto his back while he was blinded and started to drain his love, but irritatingly, the stupid brute managed to throw me off of his back with a swing of his tail before I was finished. I untangled my wings and started circling around my opponent before I hit the ground, and managed to get a covering of ice over his eyes while I was still out of his sight.

If I had been using my more familiar form, I would have been able to cocoon this glorified sack of food in seconds. I hadn't known how valuable hovering was to aerial combat until I had used a form that couldn't stay still in the air without becoming a sluggish target. As I spiraled around, I barely dodged over a tidal wave of stone the size of a castle wall. His attacks were big and strong enough to bring down a fully-grown dragon, but they were slow. I was faster than my enemy, not by much, but by enough. I had an opening! The next time the creature flailed blindly at me, I froze its front leg in place. That attack knocked it off balance, giving me a chance to freeze its other front leg and cocoon it.

That was the most interesting fight I faced. After it was over, I danced from longma to longma, cocooning every non-changeling I came across in wonderfully exciting combat until there was nothing left to take. Along with captives, I also claimed hundreds of gem-shards for my collection: bits of ruby, shards of sapphire, pieces of amethyst, piles of emeralds, and talons of topaz. By the time we started our journey home, I had three bags of plunder.

I bragged with Carapace and Spinneret on the flight back to the hive, croaking about my victories with my shiny black beak. "Did you see the mud-brown monster I brought down? I cocooned the great beast with a type of magic I had never used before, and with only an ice crystal! It was amazing! I want to fight every single type of creature, and use every single type of fighting style; there's no victory like finding an enemy's weakness, planning out a strategy, and finally executing it!"

Carapace and Spinneret had proud battle stories of their own to share. Carapace awed us both with tales of leading a dozen changelings through fifty battles and overpowering his enemies with explosions of fire. His graphic descriptions of a fire gem's power certainly made me glad to have picked up a few rubies and topazes. Spinneret regaled us with summaries of his tricks and disguises, like finding a populated area and turning himself into a diamond, a stone that his research had taught him was extremely rare and capable of creating incredibly strong shields and powerful weapons, and then waiting for longma to pick him up.


	7. Stag Hunting

When we reached the hive, the queen let us all spend our free time feasting. She even let us keep the gems we had collected in the invasion. I embedded mine inside the walls of my sleeping hole, stuck well enough to stay in place, but loose enough to be easily pulled out. I had found the fighting style of the longma intriguing; I wanted to learn their deadly dance.

I had become much more confident in navigating the hive's tunnels. I buzzed through the air, zipping past every twisting staircase or winding passage with ease. Carapace was twitching with excitement at the idea of what awaited him once our daily rounds were done, but I was ebullient with what I was doing at the moment. I loved to prove my fighting prowess in battle, but I loved the grim, content aura of my home almost as much.

My patrol was almost over when I saw her. It was only the second time I had seen her up close… Yes, _she_ saw me. My queen! She was carrying the high-profile prisoners (nobles and such) into her throne room, chuckling under her breath at their terrified expressions. When Carapace and I neared her, her beautiful multi-shaded eyes turned to us. She didn't give an order, but her desire for us to stop made enough of an impact on the hivemind for all of us to feel it.

I hovered in place, my ice-blue eyes and fanged mouth wide open, while she sauntered up to us. She ignored Antenna and looked at me and Carapace. "You two. You did well in the latest invasion. You there," she pointed an elegant hoof to Carapace, "You led your brothers well, and overwhelmed hundreds of the scaled barbarians. You'll be a commander in your next invasion." So some unlucky ex-commander was either dead or disgraced. Probably disgraced, since no changeling had died in an invasion in decades. The queen was quite wise, Carapace would be a magnificent commander. "And you, with the massive canines. You brought down the mud-knight of the longma, the strongest earth mage in their capital. You've earned yourself a place in the next invasion fighting under your friend."

The next day, a ragged spy jetted through the hive. I followed him up to the queen's guards and watched him beg for an audience with Chrysalis herself.

I soon learned the news that certain spy had brought. One of the infiltrators in the deer kingdom of Silva had been discovered. He had become involved in a duel, and his opponent had managed to gore him. Now that infiltrator was dead, and his body was being inspected in the capital city, Verdante. And so, because of that spy's incompetence, we would fly out to deal with any witnesses in an hour.

Spinneret and I followed Carapace to the armory. It was a relatively small room filled with piles of weapons and gear that reached fifty feet into the air. I gazed at the different pieces in awe, stopping every few minutes to inspect a certain set that I found especially interesting. Spinneret knew exactly how to navigate through the labyrinthine tracks, but it still took us a while to trot up to the area he claimed had the best armor. When we finally climbed up to his recommended spot, Carapace's eyes glowed with joy. He knew exactly which armor set he wanted. It was a beautifully carved set of blue armor, with swirls and starbursts engraved on its back, and mandibles on its helmet. It covered his distinctive lighter shell, making him far harder to distinguish from other commanders, but I could still recognize him by his hole pattern and muscular body structure.

Before Carapace and I flew off to take our place in the battle formation, Spinneret saw us off. He stayed on the ground as we rose into the air, "I wish I could go with you, but this shouldn't be much more than a skirmish. I'll save my unmatched fighting skills for a real battle. Try to have fun without me, and bring back a snack."

I took a raven form for the journey to Silva and tailed after Carapace's black eagle with twenty other changelings. Spinneret was right, this would be an easy victory, but it was still an important one. If the deer learned of our existence, that knowledge could spread, and eventually, infiltrations and invasions would become far more difficult. It would be rather hard for spies to gather love if they were under the constant threat of anti-illusion spells. I would have liked to have Spinneret with me, his tactical skills outshone mine, though my own were by no means shabby.

The kingdom of Silva was a single massive forest, filled with trees as large as redwoods. Those places that the area's cities had developed in were slightly less foliated than others, but even these were covered by a thick canopy of leaves. Local buildings were made from dirt and mossy stones, and occasionally chips of wood, and seemed designed to fit right into the surrounding plant life. I hadn't had time to research the realm's denizens, so I flinched in shock when I saw one of the deer for the first time. It was a small doe, with an uncanny resemblance to a normal earth-deer. Its black, dead eyes seemed to stab into my heart as it looked up at my raven form.

From our first doe sighting, it only took us ten minutes to reach Verdante. Some changelings stayed behind in the trees of the village our spy had been killed in, waiting for the queen's signal to attack, but Carapace led my squad straight to the capitol. When we all finally arrived, there were so many of us that we blocked out every ounce of sunlight, along with each one of the city's exits. I watched from a twisted tree limb as the queen flew down to the city's prince, regained her true form, and cocooned him. She was the smartest, strongest, and bravest warrior of us all. After that first attack, everything was chaos.

Carapace led our charge, dropping his disguise and rushing into the crowd of deer before his transformative fire had even gone out. Our tiny squad of twenty changelings leapt out after him. We were the smallest group in the changeling army; I had been wrong in assuming that Carapace had replaced some other commander, he had really only been put in charge of the few overflow changelings that didn't fit into any other squad. Still, we were enough to devastate grass-eating pieces of living venison. While Carapace charged into his enemies, I spewed a circle of fire around them, trapping them inside as I circled around, consuming their safe area little by little. Soon they were pathetically easy for us to cocoon.

Next, I turned to those deer who hadn't cowered together. I looked down through the burning hovels, summoned a flaming shield around my head, and threw myself into a stag that was charging at Carapace's back. I knocked the creature out of the way, and bit down on its neck, draining it as it kicked and struggled, before galloping up to the next enemy.

I crouched down as I faced a charging stag's horns, and blasted them clean off before I cocooned it. Then I faced the next deer, and, after it dodged my first two blasts, took the form of an emerald snake that it could barely see before striking it in one of its legs. I peeled my serpentine form away before sucking out its life.

After cocooning or consuming stag after stag, I finally came across a group that decided to fight together. My only real injury came from a doe. It beat me over the head with one of its hooves; the pain emanating from my horn sent me reeling to the ground, but I got up in time to incinerate her. That was a mistake, I could have made her a gift for Spinneret.

Five stags and six does charged at me, horns slicing and hooves flailing. I leapt into the air long before they reached me, but they were far more difficult to corral than single foes. I eventually took a dragon form, not a large one, only a black wyvern around as large as one of the hovels, and battered them down with rapid flaps of my wings. After I had knocked them all to the ground, I dropped my massively energy-inefficient form and entombed them in wax. Spinneret could have these specimens instead.

After dealing with those creatures, I joined back up with Carapace to charge against a stampeding herd of opponents. Not all of our squadmates managed to get out of their path in time; two or three of them were gored and forced to hide and heal themselves. One of the stags managed to use its antlers to drag Carapace down by his holes and was just about to trample him before I incinerated it.

Carapace's armor made him harder to lift, but I managed to drag him up onto a roof to recover. Panting and lying down for a few seconds gave me a chance to look down at the scene around me. While Carapace cleared off his bruises and gashes, the forest was burning. The fires wouldn't seriously damage the trees, but they were obliterating buildings and undergrowth: they were beautiful. Changelings draining their prey were sprawled all throughout the city, and prison cocoons had been plastered in most of the nearby trees. Once Carapace was finished recovering, I informed him of a plan, and I disguised myself as a rock while he drove a group of deer toward me.

After using a few more battle stratagems, my plans began to become more sophisticated. I knew that some deer were managing to find hiding places, so I disguised myself as a young stag, threw myself into the middle of a herd, and dodged a mock charge from Carapace. The deer let me follow them as they raced through the maze of buildings, and eventually led me straight into an underground chamber beneath one of the nearby huts. Once they were all inside, I blocked the exit and cocooned them one by one, as they crushed each other against the walls trying to escape.

Once I had learned of the subterranean panic dens, Carapace and I led raids into every standing hut that we could find and informed the other commanders of the trick. I imagine that our discovery had an impact, as, within a short while, the queen announced that all of the city's inhabitants had been dealt with.

Before the end of that day, we had made our way home. Queen Chrysalis had sent us back with Carapace to defend the hive during her campaign through the nearby cities. Her willingness to fly directly into the heart of battle with her troops was so inspiring! Spinneret may have laughed while I narrated my tale of her part in the invasion, but I could tell that he was just as excited to learn about her as I was. We sat in the training arena discussing the queen's majesty for hours. The room was empty - every warrior outside of Carapace's squad had been called to attack Sylva. Settling down to sleep felt wrong while the hive was so silent, so I stayed up while Carapace and Spinneret slept.

A little roaming proved that the hive wasn't completely bereft of inhabitants. While my squad held all of the current warriors, changelings of the other castes still remained. I passed a smith and an enchanter on my route and noticed many others in their sleeping holes.

When I buzzed into one of the training caves, I slipped under a stalagmite to listen in on its occupant. Antenna was blasting away at an animated training dummy, grumbling and whimpering in what seemed like shame as he went on. "I can't believe I got beaten by a deer! A queen-damned, grass-eating, dumb, pint-sized doe! How weak do you have to be to have your ribs kicked in by something half your weight? I didn't get any more than a mouthful of love, and now I can't show my face near any prisoners!"

I listened to him gripe about his performance and then flew back over to try to get to sleep. When I reached my usual spot, I noticed that Carapace was gone. He had probably set out for a midnight snack.

I woke up to Carapace's scream, followed by a sudden silence. The pain-filled sound reverberated through the hive for a few seconds before fading away, ensuring that every nearby drone heard it. What could have terrified Carapace enough to make him shriek like that? He was one of the bravest and most powerful warriors in the hive! Spinneret crawled out and hid next to me, whispering that we needed to wait for the threat to get close enough for us to identify it without revealing ourselves. I wanted to find Carapace, but I knew that anything that could bring him down in a matter of seconds would easily be able to defeat me, so I took Spinneret's advice. Soon, I saw the barbarian that had attacked my strongest clutch mate.

It was a stag. Carapace had been defeated by a spindly stag, with horns it could barely support. It was wearing a strange amulet and was flanked by two sharp-eyed does. I watched in horror as Antenna came charging at the beast, only to find himself unable to cast magic once he came within a twenty-foot radius of the strange deer. The stag pointed a hoof to Antenna, and all of the changeling's love burst out of him as he screamed in terror and agony, leaving the weak soldier trembling until he finally became an unconscious husk.

I overheard the stag sorcerer speaking with his sisters as he pranced farther into the hive. "Father spoke the truth, these monsters truly are powered by the love of others. They cannot unleash their sickening magic before the Jewel of Hate, and the simplest spell using the stone's power lays them low. I will bring their humbled forms before our father's throne, and make them into our servants."

The deer had a magical artifact capable of driving love away? No wonder it had defeated Carapace so easily: no changeling could stand against that enchantment! The only way to stop this forest prince would be to prevent him from using his amulet. I related my findings to Spinneret, and we flew down to Antenna's lifeless body. I closed my eyes, begging him to not be dead, and forced a bit of my love down his throat. I covered his mouth with a hoof as he sprang back to muffle his screams. I would need as many changelings as possible to make my plan work; even Antenna could prove invaluable.

We slowly made our way down the corridors to the armory, passing dozens of changelings sprawled out lifeless on the ground. They were a constant reminder of what would happen to us if my strategy failed. I couldn't blame Antenna for starting at every sound, I could barely keep myself from doing the same. He was almost crying as he followed me. As I turned around a corner, I barely caught sight of the stag's procession in time for us to rush into one of the ceiling's holes.

Antenna had started to panic. "They saw us! I know they did! I-I don't want to go back to sleep! It's like dying - feeling your love disintegrate inside you!" I gulped, and Spinneret and I tried to comfort him as he barely kept himself from hyperventilating.

Eventually, the prince left our area, and we continued on our way. Spinneret was the first to realize the obvious and tell the two of us to take on our least visible forms. I chose an iguana-chameleon, while Spinneret used a large grey spider. Antenna cowered as a rock for a few seconds, before finally finding the courage to take on a bluish-grey bat form and follow us. We kept to the ceiling, slowly creeping forward until we finally crept into the armory. Once we were inside, I shed my disguise, stepped up to a pile of armor sets, and told my companions to help me enchant as many of them with mobility as possible.

Performing the spell to grant inanimate objects mobility wasn't nearly as hard as it had appeared. It seemed like a mere advanced form of levitation. By the time we started to run out of energy, we had a full set of twenty armor-soldiers awaiting our commands. Now all that was left to do was lure the intruders into the armory. It was the perfect place to stage an ambush: Spinneret and I both knew how to navigate its twists and turns, and Antenna could use the hivemind to find his way, but anyone unfamiliar with the massive labyrinth of armor, shields, and weapons would be lost in seconds.

I sent one of the armor-golems to make noise throughout the halls leading to the armory and instructed it to flee back to us if it spotted anything. If seen from a distance, it seemed to be a changeling, and if it was destroyed, it could be easily replaced. While it started clunking its metal hooves together as it walked out to follow its commands (since it couldn't fly), the three of us ensconced ourselves and our creations in a dead end. Its walls were short enough to easily fly over for escape and were invisible to anything coming up to it.

Eventually, the golem achieved its purpose. It was barely beyond my range of vision when it was deactivated. Its rattling as it fell to the ground showed me that the enemy could break pre-performed enchantments. I tried to think of a positive discovery. Well, its use of its hoof to activate its amulet suggested that an attack from multiple enemies could be an effective strategy.

Just before the pale stag came close enough to see my trap, I shot down a stalactite from the ceiling above its head. The projectile didn't take out the main threat, but it did trap one of its companions. The snap I heard as the six-foot chip of rock landed on the doe's hip suggested that she was no longer a danger. Now that their exit was blocked, the prince and remaining princess charged towards us. I ordered our golems to charge the prince and rip off his amulet, and several of them nearly achieved their goal, but every time a golem was about to claim victory, the princess would kick it off of its path. Our creations were brought down one by one until there was nothing left to stop the enemy from closing in.

To Antenna's credit, he followed Spinneret's lead as he told us to blast a cloud of fire to form a shield wall for our escape. We simply didn't expect the prince to charge through our shield. Before I understood what had happened, Spinneret was lying face down on the floor, horrifically like a corpse.

This was my fault. I was such an idiot! How could I have believed that I, out of every changeling in the hive, was the only one who could defeat an amulet that had decimated hundreds of other drones? I was just another soldier, not something special. Not something to be proud of. No, if I failed, I would be even less than that. I would NOT be AVERAGE!

In an inferno of power, I became the only creature that I believed stood a chance in this fight. A creature that, at its strongest, could kill its prey with a glance. A basilisk. I was a fraction of the size of a true basilisk, not even big enough to completely cover the distance to the prince, but real enough to freeze him in place. "Antenna! This is our only chance! You have to kill him!"

Antenna had spent the moments after Spinneret's defeat completely motionless. He looked more like a basilisk victim than the prince himself. At the sound of my voice, though, he slowly melted back to life. He looked at the frozen prince, then glared, and finally sprang to action. As he couldn't use magic, he needed to get close enough to rip off the amulet, or the prince's throat. He was only a foot away when the sorcerer's sister stamped his head into the ground with her hoof. I was running out of energy to maintain my form, he didn't have enough time! As I had already accepted my loss, I felt my heart nearly burst with joy as Antenna leaped into the air, dodged the princess's attack, and drove his own hoof down into her forehead with so much force that her neck snapped in an instant.

I felt my paralyzing gaze fail just before Antenna's victory, so I took the only action that was still available. I used my last scrap of energy to lunge at the prince and drive my huge, poisonous fangs into his chest. He made an awful croak, and then he was dead.

Now all that remained was the third sibling. She hadn't died in the impact from my initial stalactite attack, but her legs had been crushed. She was no longer a threat. I cocooned her as she cursed at me and Antenna. She would be a gift for the queen, along with that strange love-dispelling amulet. Chrysalis was the only changeling that I trusted to know what to do with it. I couldn't wait for everything to go back to normal so that I could simply burrow in my sleeping-hole next to Carapace and Spinneret, and brag about how my shapeshifting abilities weren't quite as terrible as they used to be.


End file.
